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Snapshot 5:Thu, Sep 24, 2026 6:21:17 AM GMT last edited by Harish Chander

Trump Greets Xi Planeside for Rare State Visit

Trump Greets Xi Planeside for Rare State Visit

Trump Greets Xi Planeside for Rare State Visit
Above: **Watermarked Getty Image. Kindly Replace** U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sept. 23, 2026. Image credit: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin


Showing up planeside for Xi is strength, not surrender. The U.S.-China relationship will define this century, and freezing out the world's second-largest economy while it builds up its military is denial dressed up as toughness. Roll out the red carpet, extend the trade truce, open a channel on AI — then hold Beijing to every promise it makes.

Beijing armed Iran with intelligenceintel used against AmericanU.S. troops, propped up Putin's war and strip-mined American AI companies at industrial scale. Rewarding that record with a military flyover, a state banquet and a president waiting on the tarmac buys nothing but a photo op Xi never bothered to returnreciprocate. That isn't America First. —That it'sis America on its knees.


Metaculus Prediction

There is a 9% chance there will be a U.S.-China war before 2035, according to the Metaculus prediction community.


The Controversies



Go Deeper

© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 7.4.1

© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 7.4.1